Naomi Watts relives Thailand tsunami in The Impossible

Naomi Watts stars in The Impossible as a real-life mother who is separated from her family during the 2004 Thailand tsunami.

Photograph by: Handout
, Postmedia News

As Naomi Watts takes her seat in a hotel suite in Beverly Hills, Calif., she’s the picture of poise.

Her calm exterior is in sharp contrast to her role as a desperate mother and wife coping with 2004’s Indian Ocean tsunami catastrophe in The Impossible, which opens Dec. 21.

The Juan Antonio Bayona movie received acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, with predictions of Oscar nominations for Watts and Ewan McGregor, who plays the husband and dad.

But Watts insisted that she was more concerned about how the drama would be perceived.

“When I first heard about the idea of making a movie about the tsunami, it didn’t sound right,” she said. “How do you do it without it becoming spectacular and that feels so wrong? So many lives were lost.

“When I found it was (Bayona) directing, I thought, ‘Well this is a proper filmmaker.’”

Based on a true story, The Impossible follows the agonizing exploits of a family of five vacationing at a Thailand coastal resort when the wave hits full force, separating them and sparking an excruciating search after the deluge.

Spanish director Bayona, who helmed The Orphanage, said that Watts was the only actor he considered for the main role.

“Naomi is really good at getting to the dark places and the tragedy,” he said, referencing her Academy Award-nominated part in 21 Grams.

Still, Watts continued to be concerned about exploiting the disaster just before the filming began.

Bayona and screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez assured her that the movie has a broader theme. “It really is meant to be a survival story about the loss of innocence from different points of view,” said Sanchez.

Finally, the 44-year-old agreed to join the cast and headed to Thailand where Bayona had set up shop at the actual resort and hospital where the events took place.

He even had the Spanish mother and wife, Maria Belon, speak with Watts about her ordeal. At the filmmaker’s request, she also wrote long letters to Bayona and Sanchez describing her experience. (Bayona’s film team became interested in the story after hearing Belon talk about it on a Spanish radio program.)

“I didn’t have to worry about the walk and talk and the look of Maria because nobody knows her, and so I really got to invent that part,” said Watts.

“The power of what she went through is so big, though, you realize her piece of the story is just a tiny piece of this massive epic story. It put a pressure of a different kind on me. We all wanted to tell it with as much honesty as possible.”

For Watts, that meant enduring more than a month working in water tanks simulating Belon’s near-death drowning when the wave hit.

“It was incredibly strenuous and I had a horrific cough that I couldn’t get rid of,” recalled Watts. “If you’re in the water, you’re not going to get rid of a cough, and that went on.”

Worse, she had a near-death experience of her own.

“There was one day that went particularly bad with a technical issue when I was under the water, and I couldn’t get out, and I had already reached my limit with holding my breath,” said Watts, who was quickly retrieved by safety divers near her.

Watts was never in danger “but that gave me a tiny, tiny glimpse of what that might be like, and the panic you feel.”

The rest of the shoot was incident-free but gruelling. “It did require a lot of stamina,” she said.

By her character’s side for many of the sequences is her son, who is portrayed by London actor and dancer Tom Holland, just coming off playing the lead in Billy Elliot the Musical.

“It was easy for Tom, but he is a trained athlete, and a proper acrobat, and he was also 14 at the time,” Watts said, smiling. “I remember after I finished King Kong, I made a promise never to do an action movie of any kind again: Famous last words. It’s like childbirth, isn’t it? You forget, end up going through the same experience.”

Speaking of family, there’s no question her own informed her portrayal. She’s mother to Sasha, 5, and Samuel, 4, and wife to actor Liev Schreiber. “You try anything just to get to the right pitch. There’s no question my reality became part of what I used.”

Perhaps, the biggest impact on her was the relationship she enjoyed with Belon.

“I don’t like to throw around that term too easily, but there’s no question Maria has left a massively profound effect on my life,” said Watts. “She’s inspired me and reminded me that you live in the moment.”

The answer she gave a little later, describing what’s next for her, isn’t surprising.

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